The Spigot

I was replying to a facebook message from a friend about a song I sang this past Sunday.

Suddenly I was preaching in my message.

Sorry, Amy, haha.

You caught the brunt of my spiritual tourettes
(no disrespect intended to those who are overcoming this disorder).

But right smack dab in the middle of a sentence I saw a water spigot.

 It was barely open and trickling down. Then I saw the ground immediately around it and it was watered, but before the life giving water could reach the rest of the thirsty earth farther away, it was sucked up by the ground closest to the spigot.

The brutal sun was bearing down and the dry ground was crying out for refreshing and any droplet, that just happened to find its way to a parched blade of grass was evaporated by the intensity of the suns rays.

Then I saw the same spigot open full blast! Water was spraying EVERYWHERE!

Making a mess.

Completely drenching the ground nearest to it...

Infact at times that ground appeared to be underwater, but the water was moving faster than it could absorb it and so it was spreading out into the entire area, creating puddles of life.

It didn't matter how hot the sun was or how intensely it burned, it could not dry the ground that was being flooded by this wide open spiggot.

So here's where I'm coming from:

The song I sang on Sunday was actually TWO songs that just naturally flowed in and out of each other during one of my many "Love on the Lover" sessions, which begin on the couch with the keyboard in my lap, but usually end up in a weepin' mess in the floor. My precious worship leader agreed to allow me the freedom to do both that day.You must understand that this 'style' of worship is new for our house and this was the first service that it was introduced corporately. It's a regular staple during intercession and organized prayer times, but for the whole congregation, , this was new.

A Little Longer and Closer.

Here are the links: 

A Little Longer - http://youtu.be/5-vjd6LJFi0
Closer - http://youtu.be/QLQ0C_MSVLY

Go educate yourself in abandonment and then come back to read the rest of this blog. You'll understand it MUCH better if you do.  :) It's ok to waste some time with Him. Don't rush. Just close your eyes and let Him wash over you, and this blog will be here when yall finish conversatin'.

Welcome back! Ok! SO! Moving on.

After service, many people came up to me, praising the songs and the style of worship...Most of them were teenagers. Comments ranged from, "I was crying and didn't know why," and "I hope we do MORE songs like that", to "I didn't want you to stop..."

Teenagers?

Yes. Teenagers.

The very same ones who are so full of DRAMA that there aren't enough reality shows in the WORLD to capture it all.

Teenagers.

The same ones who roll their eyes when you ask for their help with ANYTHING that requires more than a cursury effort.

Teenagers.

The same ones who make stupid choices and then utilize the victim role to escape responsibility.

Yes. Teenagers.

See, here's the problem, as I see it:

As adults, we can't seem to get past their flesh age. We SAY we believe they are deep and spiritual, but do we really?

Do we really see past the immaturity to the deep wells inside of them....deep wells that make our depth look...

pitifully shallow.

We will pound them with mature word, because they can "handle it"....

but what about mature worship?

We are, in essence, that spigot that is trickling...controlling how much Spirit is poured out upon their thirsty souls....

Oh God, forgive us.

And just like that tiny trickle only reaches those close to the spigot, so our 'baby worship' only reaches those closest to us...

It waters, yes, but the world beats down on them so hard that before any of the little they receive goes too far, it's dried up and the rest of their generation remains dry, dying, and untouched.

Oh, but...

That second spigot...

Wide open!

Spraying out life!

Flooding over the closest and overtaking them...spreading out uncontrollably in the outtermost areas that are the driest and the world can't affect it. Can't stop it.

I have heard this said,

"We have to be careful not to drown them or overwhelm them...

it may be too much for them..."

I used to think that I understood that statement perfectly...even went along with it... but here is my problem with this thinking:

Why is it that we can scare the HELL of them with the gruesome, graphic descriptions of Christ's crucifiction in the name of salvation, but it's too much to usher them into the chambers of the deep love that drove this Man to endure such brutality?

We are so afraid of drowning them that we are causing an entire generation of young people to thirst to death because we will only allow a controllable trickle to escape our spigots.

As Bill Johnson says,

"FOOLISHNESS!" 

 When dry, hard ground is flooded...the water stands...yes. And it appears to be quite a problem to the neat freak believer.

Funny thing about water? Its a solvent.

The longer the water stands, the softer the ground gets.

The softer it gets, the more it soaks it up.

The more it soaks it up,  the more the seeds that were planted are nurtured.

The more those seeds are nurtured, the more life that springs forth.

The more life that springs forth, the more harvest there will be.


I have been discouraged, in the past, about how much I have given of myself to certain young people before and never seen the seeds that were planted burst forth. Never understood it.

Until now.

Maybe the reason we aren't seeing harvest in this generation is because..

 we are too afraid of the mess that a flood would cause.

Maybe it's because we can control a trickle, but not a flood

Maybe it's because we are satisfied with the growth of those tender few closest to our pitifully neat and tidy spigots.


As my Brother once said, "Come, let us reason together.."

We were all created by the same God, yes?

Yes.

If we were all created by the same Hand, then does it not stand to reason that we all have the same longing?

We are deep creations..

And deep is crying out to deep...

If we have depth, but we are witholding it, then we are most definitely to blame when they turn to satisfy their thirst thru other polluted sources...producing mamed and deformed fruit...and even dying from the poison that the world is so willing to pour over them.

Maybe the reason that they leave our Houses and go right back into the world unchanged isn't because the didn't receive...but because we didn't GIVE them anything TO receive!

Oh, Abba!! FORGIVE US!!

I find it interesting that it is these very same teenagers and young adults (whom many would say would not or do not understand the depth of the songs that I call "chamber music" or would be intimidated by it) who are blowing up my email, fb messages, and phone asking for the names of those songs, asking for CDs from IHOP prayer room sessions, veritably BEGGING for depth....yet I find very few adults who ask for it.

Could it be that it's not so much the younger generation that we are worried about being uncomfortable and able to handle it, but ourselves...?

Could it be that the very ones we have assumed were infantile in the ways of worshiping a King have surpassed the 'mature', and that WE are the ones who need a lesson in abandonment?

I believe so.

And Ima open my spigot ALL the way up!

WHO'S WITH ME?!